Marrying the Cowboy

by Trish Milburn

  Elissa smiled at the image of a massive cattle jailbreak. “Luckily, it wasn’t horses. At least cows just tend to meander instead of making a run for it.”

  “True.”

  “You want your car back?” Pete said, drawing her attention for the first time.

  She held up his keys. “You read my mind.” She eyed the armful of lumber he was holding. “You get recruited to help out?”

  Pete shot a glance at Charlie. “The price of him agreeing to rope with me at the rodeo.”

  Despite the awkward feelings she was doing her best to ignore, she laughed a little, then met Charlie’s gaze. “Nicely played.”

  “I thought so,” he said. “You know, we could use another set of hands.”

  “You’re good, but not that good. I got plenty of my own to do.”

  But after swapping keys and vehicles with Pete, she didn’t head to the nursery. Well, she got part of the way there before pulling over on the side of the road. The combination of stress, confusion about Pete and Agnes’s words about finding love had her mind spinning. The last thing she wanted was to go face the destruction at the nursery again. After all, she’d already put in a full day with the BlueBelles class. She’d been acting like a different person since the storm, and it was time to reclaim the real Elissa Mason, the one who liked to go out and have a good time.

  But instead of calling her friends for a girls’ night, she hurried home to shower and change, then drove to Austin on her own. Despite the fact that she was losing money every day the nursery was closed, she engaged in some retail therapy anyway. One cute outfit and a kick-ass pair of shoes later, she headed for the theater and made herself comfortable with a big tub of buttery popcorn for not one but two new movies.

  By the time she got out of the second movie, she was starving. After a quick stop by the Whataburger for a big, juicy hamburger and a milk shake, she headed home feeling more like herself than she had in days.

  That peaceful normality evaporated when she pulled into her driveway and noticed Verona’s car wasn’t there. She hurried inside the house to find Pete stretched out along the couch asleep. She stopped in her tracks and stared for several seconds, realizing just how close they must have been to each other to have shared that small space. As it was, Pete seemed to cover it all by himself.

  She came back to her senses and crossed the room. “Hey, Pete,” she said as she swatted one of his booted feet. “Wake up.”

  He seemed disoriented for several seconds. “Oh, there you are.”

  “Where’s Verona?”

  That question seemed to wake him up more, and he lifted himself to a sitting position. “At Annabeth’s. She had a heart scare earlier. The doc said she’s okay, but Verona wanted to spend the night with her tonight just in case.”

  The rest of Elissa’s good mood evaporated, replaced by guilt that she’d been out having a good time while Annabeth was at the hospital, fearing she might be having another heart attack.

  “Don’t worry,” Pete said. “Verona said they did a whole battery of tests, and there was no indication of any cardiac problems.”

  Elissa sank onto the arm of the chair adjacent to the couch. “She’s really careful about her health since she had her heart attack. I think sometimes she just gets nervous and freaks herself out.”

  “That’s the impression I got from Verona.”

  Elissa slid into the chair, resting her back against the opposite arm. “Did you get Charlie’s fence repaired today?”

  “Yeah. I think the cows were giving us the evil eye, too.”

  Elissa laughed at that mental image.

  “I was going to come out and lend a hand at the nursery, but Verona said you’d gone to Austin.”

  “Yeah, just needed to get away for a while, try to remember what life was like before I worked every minute of every day.”

  “Have you heard from the insurance company yet?”

  “No, and it’s driving me batty. I think I’m going to have to get started with repairs before I get the check.”

  “Maybe you’ll get it soon. I received mine today.”

  “That’s good. So you going to start rebuilding?”

  He pecked the edge of the coffee table with his knuckles. “Depends.”

  “On?”

  He met her gaze. “On if I get into the academy.”

  Her breath caught in her chest, and that told her more than anything that her feelings toward her friend had changed. “You applied again?”

  “Yeah. Nothing really holding me here anymore. Seemed like the time.”

  Elissa did her best not to react because she knew how much this meant to him, how he’d always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Texas Ranger. After everything he’d been through, he deserved to finally be able to chase his dream. That didn’t mean she couldn’t fear for his safety. Sure, he could be hurt at work now or could fall off his horse and break his neck while out riding, but she had to believe both of those possibilities were statistically less likely. But she would never voice her concerns like his mother had. His mother’s fear hadn’t been without reason. After all, she’d lost her husband to the same career her only child wanted to pursue.

  But his mother wasn’t here now. Neither was Pete’s home. Elissa couldn’t expect her friendship and his position at the sheriff’s department to be enough to keep him in Blue Falls. And she wouldn’t admit to any feelings that might change his mind.

  “That’s great.” She forced a smile. “If they’re smart, they’ll snatch you up.”

  When he gave a little smile back, her heart performed a strange flip that left her momentarily dizzy and thankful she was sitting down.

  “I’ll start looking for a place to rent tomorrow.”

  “There’s no hurry.” Earlier, she would probably have welcomed having normality return to her house, but with the possibility that he might be moving away she found herself not so eager to have him vacate her guest room. “If you’ll be heading to the academy soon, doesn’t make much sense to rent a place here.”

  “There’s no guarantee I’ll get in, and I’ve been intruding long enough.”

  “You’ll get in, and you’re not intruding.”

  “Are you sure?” The look he gave her made her wonder if she’d been more obvious about her changing feelings than she’d thought.

  She waved away his concern with a sound that made it obvious he was being silly. “Of course I’m sure. Though I might start making you take out the garbage.”

  “Oh, that settles it. I’m definitely moving out.”

  Elissa threw a pillow at him and laughed, thankful for the familiar, friendly banter.

  She just hoped she could maintain it until either her little infatuation dissipated or Pete moved away.

  If she were honest with herself, she didn’t think the first was going to happen. And the second option, well, she couldn’t think about that right now. Before her facade cracked, she stood.

  “I’m hitting the hay so I can go back to the real world tomorrow.” She headed for her room. “Oh, and don’t forget tomorrow is garbage day.”

  She glanced toward him just in time to dodge the pillow he sent flying her way.

  Chapter Seven

  Pete walked in to work the next afternoon to find Connor Murphy waiting for him.

  “What did I do?” Pete asked.

  “It’s not what you did but what you’re going to do—a favor for your good buddy.”

  “Why am I afraid to ask?”

  “It’s not a favor for me, really. Actually, think about it as me doing you a favor.”

  Pete gave Connor a raised-eyebrow look.

  “Okay, listen. I need you to be my cousin Leah’s date to the dance after the rodeo. She just called and said she
’s coming for a visit from Corpus. She’s a jewelry maker, and she’s going to set up a booth at the flea market and donate part of the proceeds to the tornado victims fund. So I can’t exactly say no.”

  “I thought you liked Leah.” She was an artsy type, but she’d always been fun from what Pete remembered.

  “I do, but that’s the night I’m going out with Kristi McKee. Took me two months to get her to say yes.”

  Pete’s thoughts went to Elissa, but she’d seemed like her old self last night. Whatever he’d thought might have been there obviously wasn’t, and he kept telling himself he should be glad. The last thing he needed to do was screw up a good friendship.

  He shrugged. “Sure. Don’t have to twist my arm to get me to go out with a pretty girl.”

  “I owe you, man.”

  “I’ll remember that the next time I draw a morning shift.”

  He’d only been in the office a few minutes when he got a domestic call and headed out to the far edge of the county. He hated these kinds of calls more than anything not involving a dead body. An hour later, he shook his head as he and Simon Teague led not only the husband but also the wife to two separate patrol cars in cuffs.

  Once both parties were safely tucked away, Pete shook his head. “Ever feel like our species is getting dumber by the minute?”

  “All the time. I count myself lucky that if I make Keri mad, all she does is make me mop the floor or something.”

  “I guess taking out the garbage isn’t so bad.”

  What the hell? Why had he said that? Simon gave him an odd look, and Pete found himself scrambling for a response that didn’t reveal he’d been thinking about his friend in a very unfriendlike way lately, noticing how her T-shirt hugged her breasts, how her jeans fit her hips.

  “It’s better than paying rent. Verona and Elissa aren’t bad landlords.”

  Simon eyed him in a way that made Pete suspect his boss wasn’t fooled.

  “Well, we better get these gems of the gene pool to lockup,” Pete said, hoping to shift attention away from his slip.

  On the drive back to Blue Falls, Pete got to listen to the woman in the backseat call him a colorful array of names as she tried to convince him she’d done nothing wrong. Sure, her husband was a horse’s ass and shouldn’t have thrown a wrench at her, but that didn’t mean she could use him as target practice using a dozen bottles of beer, either.

  Pete rolled his eyes and stared at the road ahead. He would have been better off to focus on the tirade, because when he tuned her out, his thoughts shifted to Elissa. Until a few minutes ago, he hadn’t realized just how often he’d thought about her lately. And how those thoughts had gradually shifted since he’d moved into her guest room. Was it just being in more frequent contact with a woman his own age? If he moved out, would those thoughts go away? Despite Elissa telling him he could stay as long as he liked, maybe he should step up his search for a place to rent. At least then he’d know whether he was losing his mind or not.

  The image of her pushing her hair behind her ear popped into his mind. He’d seen her do that a million times, and yet now the image made his skin warm and his hands flex on the steering wheel. Why hadn’t he noticed how beautiful she was before now?

  That was a dumb question. He’d always known she was pretty, but she’d been Elissa, a close friend since before either of them could even drive. Why was that changing now? And was there any possibility that she was experiencing the same confusing feelings?

  Pete ran his hand over his face. He couldn’t risk asking her, not when it might ruin their friendship. And he just wasn’t up for losing anything or anyone else right now. He’d had about enough loss to last a lifetime.

  Miss Classy in the backseat banged on the cage divider keeping her from strangling him.

  “Are you even listening to me?” she asked.

  “Nope.”

  “I’m a taxpaying citizen, so you work for me.”

  He eyed her in the rearview mirror. “For what you pay, I was justified to stop listening about the time I slapped the cuffs on you.”

  She let loose with another string of cursing.

  Pete ground his teeth. He hoped Elissa was right and he got into the state police academy. As he tried to block out his passenger’s displeasure, he thought the acceptance letter couldn’t come soon enough.

  Except that he’d be leaving Elissa behind.

  He cursed under his breath. As soon as he escorted his prisoner to her cell, he was going to look for a new place to lay his head at night before he made a complete and utter fool of himself.

  * * *

  “THERE’S A CONTRACTOR here said you called him.”

  Elissa looked up from where she was boxing up a few plants she would donate to the flea market at the rodeo. Anderson Bell, one of her employees, gestured back over his shoulder toward the door.

  “Okay, thanks.” She wiped her hands on her jeans and headed outside. When she saw the man waiting for her, he wasn’t a middle-aged guy with a little extra weight around the middle. Far from it.

  Well, hello there, Mr. Hotness.

  The guy was about her age, maybe a little older, with dark blond hair and a nice pair of tanned arms. His smile was enough to make any right-minded woman’s toes curl.

  “Ms. Mason?”

  “Elissa, please,” she said as she extended her hand.

  “Brett Fenton.” He took her hand in a nice, firm shake. “I believe you talked to my dad this morning about some construction work.”

  “I did.” She let go of his hand and gestured behind her. “As you can see, the building has seen better days.”

  “I don’t know. I think maybe it has character.”

  She laughed at his unexpected remark. “Little too much character, if you ask me.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe it does need a bit of a face-lift.”

  When he smiled at her again, she felt a little more normality slip back into place. “And how much is this face-lift going to cost me?”

  “I’d love to do it for free, but I’m sure my dad would disinherit me.”

  She leaned toward him and faux-whispered, “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

  Brett laughed, and it was a nice laugh. “Let me look around and take some measurements so I can give you a quote.”

  She nodded and forced herself back toward the door when she really wanted to stay outside and check out what he looked like from the backside.

  A twinge of something hit her middle, and her thoughts shifted to Pete. She was inside and halfway to the far back of the building before she identified the twinge as guilt. The shock of that stopped her in the middle of the aisle between stacks of birdseed and a shelf that had held decorative watering cans.

  Why would she feel guilty for ogling a good-looking man? It certainly wasn’t the first time she’d done so, and if she had her way it wouldn’t be the last. She knew all too well that her two best friends had found their once-in-a-lifetime loves, but she actually liked being single, having the freedom to do what she wanted with who she wanted when she wanted.

  An image of running her hands over Pete’s naked chest formed in her mind, causing her neck and face to flush with heat.

  “You okay?”

  Elissa glanced over at where Anderson had come through the large, open doorway that led to the room where he was cleaning up the collapsed displays of gardening tools.

  “Uh, yeah. Trying to decide what to do next.” At least that’s what she said. What she thought was entirely different—that she was going absolutely bananas. Seriously, how was she supposed to maintain her easy, casual friendship with Pete if she kept daydreaming about running her hands over his naked skin?

  But it was such nice skin over very nice muscles.

  Good grief!

 
She continued to the back of the building, the part that had received the least amount of damage from the tornado. Here she could almost believe her life hadn’t been turned upside down, that her relationship with Pete hadn’t taken an unexpected turn. For the first time in her life, she was attracted to someone she couldn’t pursue. She took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to get past this ill-advised attraction.

  Movement outside the window caught her attention. When she noticed it was Brett examining the exterior of the building, she latched on to the idea that maybe he was an attractive step back to her normal, fun-loving self.

  She forced herself to get back to work until Brett tracked her down about forty-five minutes later. “All finished?”

  He nodded. “You want to go over these figures now or do you want me to just leave them with you?”

  “I have another idea. Do you have to get back to Austin right away?”

  The hint of a smile tugged at the edge of Brett’s lips. “No, I actually have one more estimate to do in the area.”

  “Good, that’s perfect timing. You like Mexican food?”

  “Do I live in Texas?”

  She smiled. “Then I think we should discuss the estimate over dinner at La Cantina. Any objection to that?”

  “None at all.” He gave her a look that backed up his words.

  “You have a business card?”

  The question seemed to catch him off guard, but he pulled one from his wallet anyway. She took it and wrote her address on the back before handing it back to him.

  “I’ll be ready by six-thirty.”

  Brett glanced at the card, then back at her. “I look forward to it.”

  As he walked away, she told herself she was looking forward to it, too. Even if a part of her mind was whispering that the man she wanted to spend tonight with wasn’t Brett Fenton.

  * * *

  BY THE TIME Pete got off work and drove to Verona’s, he was ready to chuck law enforcement altogether. That’s what an afternoon of people behaving like idiots did to a guy. Maybe he’d take up professional fishing, or see if Glory needed help at the stables. At least then he could spend his workdays alone and not have to listen to the rantings of people who probably didn’t have a dozen IQ points to their names.